Blur bassist Alex James has been signed up to write a fortnightly column in The Spectator.

The magazine is a conservative-leaning publication, which may jar with some of James' fans, although it also has a history of writers from more liberal political persuasions.

The bassist has become a prolific writer since his band went on hiatus after the release of 2003's 'Think Tank'. He has written a book, 'A Bit Of A Blur', about his experiences in the band, and has also contributed to newspapers such as The Guardian.

The Spectator's editor, Mathew D'Ancona described his new columnist as 'a metropolitan artist who has moved to the country...[who] writes of both worlds with wit, charm and wonderful observation', adding that he was 'delighted' to have the Blur man onboard.

Yet another fortnight of digging and dumping, and the new garden is starting to take shape. On the back of The Cheese tasting so nice, I ordered a fruit cage and a greenhouse and 250 yew trees. That was when I called my management company to check when my next book advance was going to hit the coffers. I haven't started writing it yet. I know what it's about, though. It's going to be like A Year in Provence, only cheesier. "You had your book money on 7 July," they said. I checked again. I had. I'd blown it all on diggers and casual labour. It was bad. It takes a year to write a book, almost as long as it does to make a cheese.

Still, I was unable to stop the digging. I'd rather go to debtors gaol than leave this garden unfinished. I need to do it. The thing that has really got hold of me is the mound that has started to accumulate at the end of where the pergola is going. It has cast a spell over all the men here: builders, bassist, bergers, and small boys. It was spoiling the view from the garden a bit, but the view from the top makes it worthwhile. You can see all the famous people's houses from up there. I took Claire to have a look at my mountain. She said, "I didn't think it was going there. Can you move it over there?"

I'd done my dough and the mountain was in the wrong place. I called Juliet and asked her if we could really only make 200 cheeses a week, but I knew the answer. Mass-produced food is almost all crap. It's really hard to make more than a couple of hundred of something without compromising quality – yet the majority of all the food we buy is manufactured in huge quantities. The business model is about how many you can make, not how good it is. It's wrong.

I told Juliet that I might have to disappear to Eastern Europe, where Blur are currently riding high on the back of a beer commercial, and DJ for a couple of years to pay for the big holes I've been digging in the back garden. Or, God help us, I might have to go to the jungle and eat maggots. Juliet had some good news, though: the pickled cheese that has been sitting at the back of her fridge since summer has suddenly started to taste nice again. I tried my batch. It was true. It was a new cheese paradigm, back from the dead. "We could call it cheesus," I said.

Then my manager came for lunch. He'd been fishing that morning and he'd brought some trout with him. We sat in the garden and watched the diggers. I pulled a stalk of celery out of the earth and smeared some Little Wallop over the end of it. He tasted it. I haven't seen him look so amazed since Blur blew the roof off the tent at Reading back in 1993. "Alex," he said, "that's delicious, that's really, really delicious! My God. How many can you make? By the way, that wasn't your book advance that was paid into your account in July. It was your delivery advance for your last one, so you've got some more bread coming your way."

The rapper revealed the friendship while he filled in for Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, who is currently on holiday.“Yeah, big up him (Alex), he gave me some cheese yeah,” explained Dizzee Rascal. “He sent me some cheese to check, nuff respect to that.”Rascal revealed he liked the bassist's cheese – which he makes on his own farm – but said it faced tough competition from his favourite bite.“It was strong,” the rapper said of James’ cheese. “Big up to that, but boy oh boy, it was hard! The best cheese I've ever tasted is (cream cheese) Laughing Cow innit, what's that? BabyBel you know that! It does the job you get me, it does the job!”Meanwhile Lowe has got a host of acts to present his show while he is away, with Kasabian up next, taking over on Monday (January 14).